Spotlight on...Ken Ragsdale Artist in residence talks with Art Major

Author: Caitlyn Ottinger

Artist in Residence Ken Ragsdale comes to Middlebury from Albany, N.Y., where he lives and works. In 2005, he received his M.F.A. at University at Albany, State University of New York. A painter, sculptor and photographer, Ragsdale is ever-building a body of work based primarily on the exploration of the function and process of memory. Living in 14 different locations since birth, he was greatly affected by the ideas of impermanence and ephemerality, especially in relation to the accumulation of memories. Through his paintings, photographs and sculptural paper models, he explores both the physical space of places he remembers from his childhood as well as the figurative space of his memory. Studio art major Caitlyn Ottinger '06 talks to Ragsdale about his past, present and overarching inspirations.

The Middlebury Campus: Will you give me your history? Where were you born?
Ken Ragsdale: I was born in Walla Walla, Washington, 1962.

MC: Did you grow up in an art family?
KR: No, not really. Actually, that's not true. A lot of my family, tracing back on both sides, were musicians - a lot of country musicians. My grandfather used to tour and my dad is still a musician (he still performs), but my mom was the one who encouraged me, she was the one who said it was okay [to make art into a career].

MC: Did you always know this is what you were, that you wanted to be an artist?
KR: Yes. Yes. I think I took my first art class when I was eight. It was one of those summer classes that they had at the college and we would all go, and go out and draw things. I remember I had grown up around so much music and country musicians would come into our house and there'd be jam fests and my teacher in the summer class would listen to Cat Stevens and I loved it. I think that's how I first found my own music.

MC: What was the worst job you ever had?
KR: I had a lot of jobs. Each one of them made me more sure this [art] is what I wanted to do. Each one was another nail in the coffin for a real life. The worst only lasted for about two days. I had moved down to Santa Barbara and was working the sales floor for a high-end men's clothing shop. I just rearranged racks and occasionally someone would come in and I would tell them "we didn't have that" and they would leave. I asked the manager if I could sweep the floor or clean the windows or something and he said they had people who did that already and I said thank you and that was it. That week went along with my week spent at Hardee's [a burger chain, home of the Thickburger™].

MC: What about school - did you go to an art school?
KR: We moved a lot. I never lived in one place for more than four years - that's one reason the work comes out as it does. I started out at a community college in Walla Walla. It was a great experience. We would wake up and go get coffee and live in the print studio for 12 hours at a time. It was great. My advisor had to make up catalog numbers [for classes] for me so I could keep working.
While I was there we saw this movie of printmakers - each printmaker made a print for the movie and there was this really famous printmaker, he was big in the northwest, Louis Bunce. He was cleaning off his screen and talking about how toxic it all is because they still worked with oil-based stuff then, and the whole time he was speaking with this cigarette in his mouth and this huge bouncing piece of ash and I was like, "I wanna go to that school." So I tried to go to Western Michigan University. I spent some time there, but I didn't end up going to school, and then I went to Kalamazoo Art Institute for lithography. I was on the 11 year undergrad plan. After that, I was at PNCA (Pacific Northwest College of Art) in Portland, Ore. for three years. I studied under the sculptor William Moore, taught at a college and then went to SUNY Albany for my masters. By then I was into painting, mostly with oils.

MC: Were you already interested in the kind of memory-related work you do now?
KR: Yes, mainly I was interested in memory: how did my mind work, the processes and the way I develop those processes. I knew the process itself was important because that's how you make work - that's what you are as an artist, your work is a byproduct. I think it's important to be able to talk about the process and actually show how my memory works in a certain way. There should be an individual look that talks about my individual place, where I came from. The individuality is in the doing, it mirrors how your mind works. You are the package that is carried along. You are the process. You have to find a way to talk about the things that happen to you. Like my dad says, "If you can't make a difference, why are you here?"

MC: It seems your work is linked strongly to psychology, do you study those processes at all?
KR: I have a lot of friends who work in psychology. I don't necessarily study it, but it is a large part of my work. I have no idea what I'm doing half the time, and I have to stop myself and ask why I'm doing what I've done - why I'm compelled to do what I do.
One of the nice things about teaching is that it really illuminates your own work because you have to talk about it and voice your thoughts. When you don't talk about it and just stay in your studio, things tend to fester and they go bad. You do the same thing over and over and eventually you don't even know why you do it. You have to keep it fresh so everything makes sense to you.

MC: If you could meet, say three artists ever, which ones would you pick?
KR: Oh god. Everyone. Every one of them. I'd want to spend an hour with anyone who's serious.

MC: And finally, what museum would you insist every Middlebury student should see?
KR: Well I have two: The Frick Collection in Manhattan and The Art Instistute of Chicago. The Frick because it's very personal. It's intimate. You have time with a thing. How often can you stand in front of a Vermeer all day long. And the best all around museum of all time in my opinion is The Art Institute of Chicago. When I used to live in Michigan I'd take the train and I'd have four spare hours in Chicago so I'd sprint over to the museum, stay for a couple hours, and sprint back to the train station. It was so great.

A selection of Ragsdale's work will be on show beginning Friday in the Johnson Art Gallery. He will give a slide lecture on his work Thursday April 13 at 4:30 p.m. in Johnson 304. A reception during which Ragsdale will answer questions will follow.